The Swedish ISY Contribution
A Rosenqvist, H. Osterlund
Swedish Space Corporation
P.O. Box 4207
S-17104 Solna
Sweden
Abstract
The Swedish contribution in the celebration of the International Space Year has materialized in an active participation in the World Forest Watch project of the Earth Science and Technology panel but also in the Training in Remote Sensing Applications programme within the panel Education and Applications.
The Swedish World Forest Watch contributions have been formed under the theme of "Remote Sensing for Forest Management". The projects comprise a wide range of forest and forestry remote sensing applications using different technical approaches.
1. Background
During the planning of the World Forest Watch (WFW) project, under the panel of Earth Science and Technology, a Swedish participation was discussed within the Swedish National Space Board (SNSB). After the initial international planning of the global WFW project contributions, the idea grew that Sweden, having well recognized scientific as well as practical experiences in the field of forest and forestry applications should contribute to this project.
With a good knowledge of the domestic activities in the field of forest and forestry applications of remote sensing, the Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) gathered the research community with in-house experts of forest applications, to outline a Swedish ISY World Forest Watch contribution. It was mutually agreed upon to form this contribution under the theme "Remote Sensing for Forest Management". The projects represent a spectrum of remote sensing applications with the aim of increasing forestry planning and productivity or of surveying deforestation and forest damages. They show techniques from visual interpretation to advanced digital segmentation, applications for individual forest stands as well as entire nations from boreal Sweden to tropical Thailand and arid Sudan.
By this approach it was thought that planned and ongoing activities could be extended, results published and displayed at several occasions, to inform a wider audience about the potential of remote sensing for sustainable management of forest resources, but also to strengthen national and international remote sensing co-operation.
